The subject was reviewed in The Faculty Association of Vancouver City College (Langara) and Vancouver City College, (1974), Can. L.R.B.R. 298. In contrasting the traditional industrial model to a collegial model it was said, at page 300:
"The thread which runs through this whole structure is the view that academic decisions of this kind should be arrived at by free discussions among professional colleagues, not imposed from above by someone with a position of authority. Clearly, some people will have much greater influence than others on the decision, but that should be due to their greater experience and knowledge, not their formal role in the institution. Certainly, this is an idealized picture of how academic decisions are reached in universities and colleges. As counsel for the employer put it in this case, academics should not deceive themselves into believing that in the real world such decisions are based purely on a consensus of objective scholarly judgments. Still, there is a visible contrast in the style of government in an academic community and the way production in a mill or a factory is directed by management.
"The thread which runs through this whole structure is the view that academic decisions of this kind should be arrived at by free discussions among professional colleagues, not imposed from above by someone with a position of authority. Clearly, some people will have much greater influence than others on the decision, but that should be due to their greater experience and knowledge, not their formal role in the institution. Certainly, this is an idealized picture of how academic decisions are reached in universities and colleges. As counsel for the employer put it in this case, academics should not deceive themselves into believing that in the real world such decisions are based purely on a consensus of objective scholarly judgments. Still, there is a visible contrast in the style of government in an academic community and the way production in a mill or a factory is directed by management.